The field of invention relates to a vehicular storage box of a type that is commonly used with the conventional pickups and cargo vans for the storage of tools, shop supplies and other miscellaneous types of small items. These boxes are used with conventional pickup trucks because lockable storage space is at a premium.
The boxes are used to store carpenter's tools or other types of tools and supplies which a mechanic, technician, carpenter or laborer or the like may need to have at a job site remote from the headquarters office or plant. In the typical installation the tool box is mounted at the forward end of the pickup bed, adjacent to the front panel. The reason for this is quite obviously, to allow for as much storage space in the pickup bed as possible for longer items such as lumber, ladders, wheelbarrows or other types of tools or perhaps cargo storage such as barrels of materials or boxes.
In order to have easy access to the contents of this storage box the boxes are almost universally designed to be open from either or both sides of the pickup bed. In this way the person using the tool box need not climb into the pickup bed each and every time he desires to bet something out of the box, but merely stands at the side and opens up that particular top panel.
The problem with the conventional storage boxes is the dilemma created by the method of gaining access to the storage box. If it opens from the side, then the box cannot be used inside of an enclosed trade van, nor can it be used in a pickup truck wherein the pickup truck is equipped with a camper shell or the like.